http://hughryan.org Freelance writer Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:04:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en First published in The New York Times on January 6, 2012. Read the original (with videos!) here. ON the roof of a small row house in Brooklyn, a black powder fuse flared brightly against the gray sky. Hissing and sparking, it burned through a platform installed inside a repurposed ... http://hughryan.org/who-says-machines-must-be-useful First published on The Daily Beast on January 4 2012. Read the original here. Until recently, the term “Scandinavian import” evoked blond wood and incomprehensible instructions, not tightly packed and darkly intricate crime novels. Stieg Larsson’s Swedish shockwave The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo changed that, making northern ... http://hughryan.org/319 First published in The New York Times on November 25, 2011. Read the original here. THE basement auditorium of the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side is a sincere space. Big, brown and bare, it suggests a school gym, a place for officially sanctioned fun — which ... http://hughryan.org/schemekl-a-band-born-as-a-laugh First published on The Daily Beast on October 14, 2011. Read the original here. For 10 years, Maria (not her real name) was beaten, raped, and forced into prostitution by her husband, a New York City resident. He often refused to allow her food, locked her in a room without a ... http://hughryan.org/trafficked-womens-second-chance First published in The New York Times on September 29, 2011. Read the original here. THE stores are already stuffed with polar fleece, Gore-Tex and Thinsulate. But as temperatures dip, one unassuming shop in Midtown Manhattan has everything needed to weather an old-fashioned winter in the oldest of ways — though ... http://hughryan.org/where-novices-and-artists-indulge-the-quilter-within First published in The New York Times on August 11, 2011. Read the original here. WALK past the low-ceilinged bar, the jukebox and the pool table. Keep going, beyond the stage where “Queeraoke” erupts every Tuesday, and right out the back door. Feel the sunshine on your face and inhale the ... http://hughryan.org/a-gay-oasis-with-beer-and-barbecue